The openers for a voter registration rally were preschool children from Montessori Academy of Colorado. They sang songs including “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” (Jon Murray, The Denver Post)

…But turn around, and the crowd was sparse at noontime Tuesday. (Jon Murray, The Denver Post)

Perhaps reflecting the ho-hum nature of this year’s off-year election in most corners, their rally in Civic Center on Tuesday — National Voter Registration Day — drew few actual voters, save for government staff members and politicos. Not far away, larger crowds queued up for food trucks as part of Civic Center Eats, where the clerk’s staff offered registration on tablets.

“Sometimes it is easy to believe that there are no more obstacles to the polling place, but I’m here to tell you that 50 years after the Voting Rights Act was signed, there are still battles to be fought,” said Denver Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson, turning to the politics of voting laws.

She cited her office’s lobbying in favor of expanded voting access in Colorado in recent years, including preregistration for 16-year-olds and online registration, and said voters should follow through by returning their mail ballots.

Arapahoe County District Attorney speaks outside the Capitol in Denver in 2013 after Gov. John Hickenlooper granted death row inmate Nathan Dunlap an indefinite reprieve. (Photo By Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post)

UPDATED: George Brauchler continues to flirt with a U.S. Senate bid just as a new poll suggests a matchup against Democrat incumbent Michael Bennet may start at a dead heat.

The poll gives Bennet a 45 percent to 42 percent advantage against the Republican district attorney — a narrow edge that puts the race at a statistical tie given the 3.4 percent margin of error. It’s a similarly tight race in a potential head-to-head between Bennet and Republican Robert Blaha, with Bennet holding a 4-point advantage among registered voters, just outside the margins.

Clarity Campaign Labs, which works for Democrats, conducted the poll Sept. 10-13 on behalf of End Citizens United, an organization that is seeking to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court ruling about corporate spending in elections.

It comes with an asterisk (see why below), but the numbers are worth a look because it offers the only public peek inside what a Brauchler (or Blaha) candidacy may mean for the Democratic incumbent.

Brauchler will make an announcement in early October about whether he will enter the race. But it’s looking more and more likely he will make the move, coming out on conservative talk radio in recent days to blast Bennet for his Iran vote and hinting at a run other interviews.

WASHINGTON — The ad isn’t exactly subtle — 10 children counting down to the detonation of a nuclear bomb. Nor is the message: that U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s support of a nuclear deal with Iran will lead the world on the path to destruction.

But the conservative group Advancing Colorado is hoping its redux of the famous “Daisy” ad of the 1960s will shock voters into turning against the Colorado Democrat during his 2016 run for re-election.

“Bennet is a dangerous puppet, and we will never forget he voted to hold the American people hostage and sided with terrorists and madmen to silence the innocent people he represents here in Colorado,” said Jonathan Lockwood, executive director of the group, in a statement.

“The truth is Michael Bennet passed tough sanctions against Iran, has worked to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon and is authoring legislation to make the Iran deal even stronger,” said Andrew Zucker, a Colorado Democratic Party spokesman, in a statement.

He also noted Lockwood had ties to the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, two conservative powerbrokers.

Bennet was one of the last Democrats in the Senate to declare his support on the Iran deal and in making that announcement also said he was helping to write legislation aimed at protecting Israel — as well as his political flank.

That bill could be unveiled in a matter of days.

An AP report noted the broadcast portion of the Advancing Colorado buy was relatively small: $46,000.

If you’re not invited, you’re probably not going to get a first-hand look at Donald Trump’s bombast about his wealth, Carly Fiorina’s defense of her time as a corporate CEO or any of the economy-related issues in the debate at the University of Colorado on Oct. 28.

A story by Alex Burness in Friday’s Boulder Daily Camera says seating details are done and the student body, like many others who might have liked to attend, are out of luck.

“This is a television production more than anything else,” Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, told Burness. “It’s a major, major event, but it’s mostly focused on being seen by the tens of millions of people who are watching.”

Crestmoor neighborhood residents gathered in large numbers June 8 for a City Council meeting to discuss a proposed rezoning of a church property to make room for an apartment building. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

A lawsuit by neighbors challenging the controversial rezoning of land near Denver’s Crestmoor Park has cleared its first major hurdle.

Gilman ruled that the neighbors, who live varying distances from the former church site at 195 S. Monaco Parkway, had standing to sue. She also found that their claims disputing the city’s decision-making at several levels were sufficient to proceed.

The council approved the rezoning 8-4 in June after a five-hour hearing that ended after 2 a.m. Its members heard support from some speakers for developer Metropolitan Homes’ rezoning request and opposition from others, who voiced concerns about traffic safety, density and other issues.

The plaintiffs make several claims, including that the rezoning process was tainted by campaign contributions from developers, lobbyists and other interested parties to council members.

Rand Paul aide John Yob took to social media to accuse Rich Beeson, Marco Rubio’s deputy political director and a Coloradan, of punching him at a post-debate event in Michigan on Thursday.

Rand Paul’s presidential campaign is known for talking tough on the issues, but an actual punch in a Michigan bar is causing an eruption. Paul staffer John Yob, the recipient of the alleged blow, took to social media to call for Coloradan Rich Beeson to lose his job.

Beeson is the deputy political director for Sen. Marco Rubio, and he’s veteran of swing state Colorado’s political fights.

“He literally physically assaulted me by punching me in the face,’ Yob wrote on Facebook about the dust-up at a bar on Mackinac Island Thursday night.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat,, and U.S. Sen. Cory, Gardner, a Republican, both of Colorado. (AP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — With a possible federal shutdown just days away, Colorado’s two U.S. senators are pleading with their colleagues to support a proposal that would force lawmakers to stay near Capitol Hill until the government re-opens — or else face the possibility of arrest.

In March, Sens. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, and Cory Gardner, a Republican, introduced a measure that basically requires the senate to take attendance once an hour for as long as a shutdown is ongoing.

The idea is to prevent senators from skipping town and to compel them to work on a solution. If that’s not enough, the Bennet-Gardner resolution also ensures the upper chamber has the power to seek the arrest of senators who miss the once-an-hour quorum call.

In those scenarios, delinquent senators would be brought to the floor and not to jail. The sergeant at arms would have the power to seek the help of other law enforcement agencies to find any missing senator.

“The resolution will have the effect of keeping a majority of Senators on or near the Senate floor in the event of a government shutdown,” wrote the two senators in a recent letter touting the idea. “More importantly, it will discourage the Senate from contemplating a shutdown in the first place.”

Since its introduction, the proposal hasn’t advanced far, but Bennet and Gardner in recent days have asked the Senate Rules Committee to put their resolution on the fast track before a possible shutdown occurs Oct. 1.

“This resolution is a common sense approach which uses existing familiar procedures in order for the Senate to do its job by passing a budget and reopening the government,” they wrote to the committee. “While we may differ on the reasons that have led Congress to this potential impasse, our constituents in Colorado have made clear to us that any government shutdown is unacceptable.”

They also asked Judge R. Michael Mullins Thursday to stay his decision while any appeals play out so that the Lawrence Street Community Center can open next month, as planned, next to the Rescue Mission’s downtown shelter.

If the judge declines to reconsider his ruling, the next step would be to take the case to the Colorado Court of Appeals.

More than any other state, Colorado played a primetime role in the Republican presidential debate Wednesday night thanks to a question about marijuana legalization.

The question came as Colorado is preparing to host the next GOP debate Oct. 28 in Boulder.

CNN debate moderator Jake Tapper posed the question after saying it came from social media users. He asked Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s pledge to enforce federal law in Colorado to stop recreational marijuana use.

Paul — who became the first major presidential candidate to court the pot industry at a recent Denver fundraiser — put the emphasis on rehabilitation instead of incarceration. “I personally think this is a crime where the only victim is the individual,” Paul said of marijuana use. “And I think America has to take a different attitude.”

He went on to invoke states’ rights and say, “I don’t think the federal government should override the states.”

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.